pleasantly surprised. i'm not vietnamese, nor am i an expert or anything, but i have some experience with banh mi. i've done prof. salt's banh mi crawl through little saigon in orange county, and have eaten at pretty much every banh mi shop along valley blvd. in la. i really like banh mi, and i have a definite idea of what i think is a good banh mi.
i was really quite surprised by the cold cut banh mi. from some of the earlier comments and a glance at the menu, i'd suspected that this would be a gentrified, gringo-fied and tamed banh mi, but it certainly wasn't.
yeah, the bread is a bit different from some of the other places, but that's not a bad thing. it was very fresh, with a nice tender-crisp crust and chewy interior. i couldn't tell whether it was a rice/wheat flour mix or just a straight wheat-flour bread (my taste buds aren't that good), but it seemed a bit lighter than a wheat baguette. in any case, i liked it; certainly it's much better than the airy-dry-toasted-crispy things they use at the other banh mi shops in town, and closer to the baguettes from the places i like in socal.
the pate was generously applied and had a nice funky flavor. the cold cuts were also generous and had a bit of the squidgey-tough texture of real head cheese. i was worried that they'd cut back on the pate and head cheese to make it more palatable to westerners, but they had plenty of both in full offal glory.
the other toppings were standard but nicely done. the jalapeno seemed to be sliced thinly, which i liked, and the do chua was substantial and more tart than sweet, which worked well.
very good banh mi; easily the best i've had in utah so far. i'll have to try their other offerings.
the only downside was the wait. i was there at lunch hour, so i had to wait for a bunch of huge to-go orders to be filled. on the plus side, that means they'll stay in business. next time, i'll go at off-peak hours.
okay, i went back, and the cold cut combo is still amazing. also tried the honey pork banh mi...also excellent. sending ohmaiup to my favorites list now.
update: been at least a dozen times at this point and have a few more thoughts. the pho, bun and rice dishes are tasty. the egg banh mi isn't their best (too oniony), but the "pho" brisket banh mi is usually very good. it's more of a bo kho brisket rather than pho brisket so it has a sweet/star anise flavor, and comes with pickled onions, and thai basil. they've started adding sriracha sauce to the brisket banh mi, which isn't bad, but also isn't necessary (especially when ordered by chile-phobic dining companions...you'd think that when they specifically order it w/out jalapenos, that should trigger the question of whether to hold the sriracha also...that was very irritating). also, the bread seems to be a little different from what they used at the beginning. oh well, it's still good.
update #2: quality seems to have slipped. i think they may be victims of their own success (a good problem to have). it may be difficult for them to handle the demand with the small kitchen/prep area. the last several times i've been, they've messed up the order each time. the honey pork is often tough, and the pho broth doesn't seem to be as good as it used to be. oh well.